Each week I scour articles, wading through the dogs, and bringing you the best insights to help product managers, developers, and innovators be heroes.

Product Innovation Tips Around the Web

7 frameworks for developing an innovation culture + change management to go with them. “Perhaps the most powerful are innovation communities, where diverse employees come together to work on specific issues beyond their typical responsibilities, with management’s support. If a community takes on a life of its own, its strength and duration can go a long way to shifting a culture.” Read more at Fast Company http://www.fastcompany.com/3044780/hit-the-ground-running/how-to-build-conversations-that-create-innovative-ideas

Add an open source perspective to improve innovation. “It means recognizing that great ideas can come from any level of the organization, and, indeed, from outside the organization altogether.” Read more at Open Source https://opensource.com/business/15/4/embracing-open-source-workforce

New study of the most innovative state – nope, California is not one of them. “We considered objective metrics – whether a state has right-to-work laws, its tax friendliness, the speed of its broadband connectivity – as well as more subjective metrics that get to the heart of a state’s innovation profile.” Read more from The Washington Post http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/innovations/wp/2015/04/15/heres-which-states-are-most-innovative-in-america/

How to overcome the leadership challenge innovation creates. “A 2014 survey by the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL) found a striking gap between need for innovation and the ability to deliver it. Nearly everyone who took part in CCL’s 500-person client panel said innovation is a key driver of success (94 percent), and 77 percent reported their organizations have made attempts to improve innovation. Even so, just 14 percent were confident about their organization’s ability to drive innovation effectively.” Read more at ATD https://www.td.org/Publications/Blogs/Learning-Executive-Blog/2015/04/Stuck-in-the-Middle-Why-Innovation-Dies-and-What-to-Do-About-It

8 most important innovation metrics – measure what matters. “We’ve closely examined all of our experiences working with our clients, and these are the eight most important metrics to measure your innovation capacity on a monthly basis.” Read more at Innovation Excellence http://www.innovationexcellence.com/blog/2015/04/15/managing-innovation-starts-with-measuring-engagement/

Networked innovation reformulates open innovation and is boosting US manufacturing. “The research team examined more than 6,000 U.S. manufacturers and service-sector firms between 2007 and 2009 regarding the extent to which innovators relied on external sources of invention. They found that 18% of manufacturing firms had innovated by introducing a new product; of these, almost half (49%) reported that the idea behind their most important new product had come from outside the company – through customers, suppliers, or technology specialists.” Read more at Wall Street Journal http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2015/04/15/whats-boosting-u-s-manufacturing-networked-innovation/

An example of a how a large established company is forcing innovation into its culture-the story of Paker Hannifin. “For big companies to thrive and succeed, they need to be innovative–they all know it, but nobody has really cracked the code yet…That’s why this whole thing with Parker Hannifin is so interesting, because you never would have thought that a $13 billion conservative company, in an old-line business, would be the one to solve it.” Read more at Forbes http://www.forbes.com/sites/danalexander/2015/04/15/innovation-factory-how-parker-hannifin-pumps-out-breakthrough-products/

 

Still Important – Product Management Flash from the Past

15 must read marketing books. “By reading the right books, you can teach yourself more about marketing than you’d ever learn in an MBA class. Want to know where to get started? You can’t go far wrong with these 15 books.” See the list at Social Caffeine http://lorirtaylor.com/diy-mba/